Certainty
by moments-of-weakness
Summary: Steve's world has been turned upside down and Danny feels the need to help.


**Title**: "Certainty"

**Paring/s**: Steve/Danny, Chin

**Disclaimer: **I in no way own any part of Hawaii Five-0 or the characters, just borrowing and playing a little bit.

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Takes place right after episode 1.11

**Summary**: Steve's world has been turned upside down and Danny feels the need to help.

_Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.  
__"Pooh!" he whispered.  
__"Yes, Piglet?"  
__"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."  
__~A.A. Milne_

Steve was thrown completely off kilter. In no way had he ever expected to hear those words come out of Chin's mouth and it had thrown him for a loop. He was stunned speechless and it was not something that happened often with Steve McGarrett. The Commander was supposed to have answers and take care of things. People relied on him. His team depended on him. He was not the sort of man that would stand dumbfounded in front of his father's former partner that Steve now worked with and thought of as a part of his family. Steve didn't know what to say or how to react so he simply turned, walked out of the office and headed down the stairs, through the doors to his truck.

Steve ignored Chin as he called for him and he never once looked at Danny even though he said Steve's name more than once in an attempt to get his attention. Steve could not face any of them. Everything he had known since he was sixteen years old was now in question because his world had been rocked to the core the day his mother died and it changed him. Steve sighed. _Died._ No, now he finds out she was murdered and he needed to find some way to come to grips with it. He had to somehow center himself and then he had to find answers he now knew his father never could. Steve knew he had to find some sort of peace before he would be able to do anything. He simply had no idea how he might find that peace any time in the near future.

Danny stood outside Chin's office door and threw his hands up in the air in confusion mixed in with a little bit of frustration as he watched Steve walk away without so much as a second glance. "What?" He looked at Chin who was standing frozen in place with a look of concern across his face. "Where's he going? What was that? Did he not hear me?"

"No, I'm sure he heard you. Steve has something he obviously has to do but he's going alone." Chin was afraid Danny would do something stupid in an attempt to help Steve and knew he had to say something to try and stop the possible train wreck. "Danny, I'm not going to follow him and neither are you." He said as sternly as he could.

Danny shook his head and took a step back. "What? Not following him? Does he need something? Has he forgotten something and decided to go to the store? Is he hungry? Otherwise, the way he left here someone needs to follow him."

Chin walked toward Danny put his hand on Danny's arm and said "Let it go Danny. He'll come back and I'm sure the boss will tell you everything then."

Danny took a deep breath and knew in his gut something wasn't right. He also knew the way Steve left the office that it might not be the best idea for him to be alone. "Okay, where's he going because I, as his partner, should make sure he is okay and let him know I have his back."

Chin shook his head and replied, "I'm not sure."

"Oh, you're not sure. What were the two of you discussing? Maybe that could give us a clue as to where he might be headed so we can make sure he is okay because the way it looked to me, the man is not okay." Danny's arms were now flailing.

"Look, he just found out some information that..." Chin couldn't explain because he didn't know exactly how much Steve might have told anyone else or if it was something he'd kept completely hidden. "Danny, I'm sorry. I don't know if I should say anything, I don't know if he would want to tell you everything himself but I am fairly certain that right now he wants to be alone to process this so as much as you want to follow him and fix it, you can't."

"Alone to process. Alone to process? What the hell does he have to process that I can't know..." He stopped. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and released it slowly as the load of bricks finished falling on his head. "The box." Danny opened his eyes and looked at Chin. "That damn box that his Dad left him. From day one it's been that damn box. Every case we work on seems to be affected in one way or another because of that damn box and how Steve feels about it and his father. He has to stop obsessing and he has to ask for help." More proverbial bricks fell on his thick skull and Danny continued. "Steve did ask for help. He asked _you_ for help and whatever it is that you found has thrown him into some weird alternate universe where he cannot speak to anyone that is calling out his name even if it is to simply acknowledge he can hear and hasn't gone deaf." He took another deep breath, exhaled and asked, "Okay, I'm asking again. So Chin, where'd he go?"

"I honestly don't know Danny."

"You have to have _some_ idea."

"If I had to guess where he would go I'd have to say the cemetery or maybe his house. I really don't know." Chin was being honest because if he were the one in that position he has no idea where he would go to deal with news like that.

"Give me something Chin. Please?" Danny was pleading with him and sighed as Chin just shook his head. "The box. Is it a case?"

"Yeah."

"An old case?"

"Yes."

Danny's head was really beginning to hurt. "Can I have a date please?"

He thought a moment and decided that was something simple enough to tell him without giving too much away. "1992 is all I'll say." Chin wasn't sure he should have given him the date but decided it was only the year and depending on what Danny might already know, it could lead him to Steve if only to make certain their boss was okay.

"92?" Danny asked as he did the math.

"Yeah, 92."

"That's all I need Chin. Thank you. Now, I'll see you later. Call me if you or Kono hear anything first okay?"

"We will."

Danny walked out of the building and directly to his car. He knew Steve wouldn't be at the house because if it is about 1992 he would want to stay lost and the house would be the first place they'd look. He got in the car, put the key in the ignition and contemplated the idea of Steve being at the cemetery as Chin suggested. Realizing that would be the second place they'd look he shook his head knowing Steve McGarrett wouldn't be there either. He had to go through and eliminate all of the obvious places so no ships and no water because Super SEAL and Aquaman would head there first. He started the car and pulled out of the lot heading in no particular direction other than his own apartment to maybe change clothes and grab some beer because Danny was fairly certain beer would be needed. Turn after turn he kept rattling off places Steve might go and they either seemed too obvious or simply not at all where Steve would go. Just as he was turning down the street to his apartment it hit him. He pulled over off the road, grabbed his phone and dialed Chin's number.

It took only one ring for him to answer. "Yeah? Did you find him?"

"Not yet. Do me a favor?" Danny knew Chin could find the information he needed. It took a little while but Chin called him back and as soon as he wrote down the address to enter into the GPS, Danny forgot all about a change of clothes and his beer. He had to get to Steve, especially if he was right with his guess.

Danny saw the truck as he neared the address on the GPS and parked behind the blue pickup. He slowly got out and looked around the deserted stretch of road. Slowly he walked straight ahead looking all around and finally spotted the man he had been searching for, sitting on the ground, with a beer in his hand beside him, his back to Danny.

"You found me" was all he said when Danny approached.

Danny was startled a moment and asked "How'd you know it was me?"

"I heard you walking and knew it was you." He sighed. "You found me" he stated again.

"Yeah, I am a detective ya know."

"Yeah." Steve took a long slow swig of his beer and did not give any inclination of standing, leaving, or speaking to him anymore.

Danny knew his knee was not yet at one hundred percent and it might physically hurt him but he slowly knelt down and then maneuvered himself around so that he was sitting beside Steve.

"Old man."

Danny chuckled. "I wanted to make sure I did not re-injure my knee when I sat down. The slightest move the wrong way and I would be done. Have to be very gentle with it because I am not going to be stuck at a desk. No, not doing that again." Danny looked around and realized as difficult as it was to get down on the ground as gently as he could, he would take just as long trying to get back up off the ground. "And I just realized I have to stand up eventually."

"I'll help you." Steve stated before sitting in silence, not sure where he would start the conversation he knew they would have.

It was nearly killing him but Danny waited as patiently as he could knowing Steve would open up when he was ready. He started moving around a bit simply to keep his knee from going stiff sitting in one position and tried to keep the moving around to a minimum so he didn't annoy Steve too much. With a sigh Danny finally leaned forward, glanced around the other side of Steve and asked "how many of those do ya have?"

"Enough" he replied as he reached over, grabbed a beer and passed it to Danny. Steve finished off his beer that had gotten a little warm in his hands before grabbing another one for himself. "I suppose you're wondering why I would be here drinking if this was where my mom was killed in a drunk driving accident."

"No, I figure you have your reasons. You always have reasons for the things you do even if I don't always understand them immediately." Danny did not want to push but he had to admit that his curiosity was getting the better of him.

"Not an accident." Steve said matter of fact and sat in silence a few more minutes after that.

He wasn't sure what that statement meant but Danny would wait as long as he had to wait, if Steve even decided at all to open up to him. Danny hoped the other man would. They were partners and he was fairly certain they were pretty good friends but he knew Steve had his demons which Danny wasn't sure he was quite ready to face along with him.

"Danny?" he asked without looking over.

"Yeah?"

"Still there? You're quiet."

Danny smiled. "I'm still here babe, just waiting for you to talk if you want to and if you don't I am fine with that too."

"Good."

The men sat in silence while finishing their beer. Steve got two more out of the box, passed one to Danny and began drinking the other. Danny mumbled a thank you and continued looking at their surroundings, wondering how much the area had changed in the last eighteen years.

Steve took a deep breath, set his beer beside him and turned so that he could look at Danny while he spoke.

Danny turned to Steve and in the now dim light he could see that Steve's eyes were bloodshot and he knew it was not from the beer. "Are you okay?" he asked, knowing full well what the answer would be but more curious as to how Steve might answer.

"No."

"I didn't think so."

"I don't know if I will be either." Steve shook his head.

"You don't have to be okay. This..." Danny gestured, "whatever is going on, you aren't alone in it. We're here for you."

"You found me."

"Yep."

Steve tilted his head ever so slightly before asking him "how? How did you know I would be here?"

"I am a detective" he answered proudly while smiling.

"So you said." He paused a moment and continued. "Danny, how did you know I would be _here_."

Danny took a deep breath and tried to explain his reasoning the best he could. "You didn't look at me when you walked out of the office even though I knew you heard me. That's not you. Even if you were pissed you would have given me a face. Nothing, no face. Chin said you would be back. Said not to follow you. So, I made him tell me. Well, he didn't exactly tell me, I figured out finally that it had to do with the box and he said it was an old case. I asked the date, did the math, knew you probably shouldn't be alone and it led me here."

"Why here? Why would you think I would be here?"

"You're Steve McGarrett super SEAL. If you need to be alone you are going to be in one of the last places any of us would think to look. Chin suggested the cemetery or your house but you would know we would look there first. I decided the next logical places were ships and/or water because you are you but knew those were a bust as well so I didn't even attempt them. Knew your mom was on your mind, especially after this case and our conversation in my car so I called Chin knowing he would somehow be able to get the address of the accident scene in '92 and here I am. And here you are. And here we are together drinking and given we are law enforcement we should not drive so I suppose we are here for a while yet." Danny stared at Steve, waiting for a response but not getting one. "Now _you're_ quiet again."

"You know me" he said very matter of fact.

"We're partners" Danny answered while motioning his hands between them. "We know things about one another." Danny knew though that it was something more than the simple fact they're partners.

Steve nodded and knew it was a now or never moment. "She was murdered" he stated.

Danny furrowed his brows, did his best squinty face and quietly asked "what?" because he was certain he hadn't heard Steve correctly.

"The box. I showed the contents of the box to Chin Ho and he figured out what a number is that I didn't understand. Said it was the way they did things back then, an old case, an old homicide with a missing file, and he gave the date. April 19, 1992. The day my mother died. The day my world changed. The day I thought she'd been in an accident but apparently, over the years, my father has been investigating it as a homicide. Now the file is missing and I have no idea where to go from here." Steve sighed and ran his hands through his hair and over his face as though he were trying his best to wake up from a terrible nightmare. He took a deep breath, released it, and folded his hands in his lap. "I'm going to need your help in this Danny." He paused a moment, looked into the other man's eyes and added a "please?"

Danny sighed, a slow easy smile appearing on his face at the man sitting so close to him, and put his hand on Steve's folded hands. "Anytime babe, anytime. You need me, I'm here, no matter what."

Steve released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding since he'd asked the question and looked down at Danny's hand on his. This is what he needed. Steve didn't need to be alone. He didn't need to come to the place where he always thought the accident occurred in order to figure things out or to center himself. He just needed to have Danny beside him, telling him there was nothing wrong in not being okay with all of this, letting him know he would help him and just being there. All he needed in his life was to be sure of Danny and now he was.

_tis all..._


End file.
